So Land8Lounge has at least a couple hundred people as members yet it seems like we only hear from the same 10-20 folks over and over again. Where the He11 is everyone? The profession in the US is in crisis mode and we should be hearing from all those new and old within the industry. What’s going on? Are you making it? Are you alive? I am dying for some meaty professional topics. Here are some sample topics to get you started:

-Since when did an LA degree become the training grounds for Strarbuck’s baristas?

-Why did my old firm lay me off and keep that brown-noser who laughs too hard at the principal’s jokes?

I try to curb myself from universal-state-of-things comments because I read too much market conditions background info. and it’s scary. We may revive (economy and profession) but I don’t’ think it’s going to be any time soon…and LA can’t very well pull out ahead of the general background conditions by some magic formula. Of course “how to cope in the meantime” contributions should still be made, but I’ve only seen about 3 genuine “LA wanted” ads the last year in my whole state. There are bound to be a lot of courageous survival stories out there, but I suspect the individual sorrow levels and dashed expectations are pretty high also, and hard to spread on a board for the world to see. There is some value in just cross-confirming: if your situation is stressful, you are not alone or doing something “wrong.”

I think this is a strange time in history. I highly suspect that we will look back one day and be shocked at how bad this has really been. I think depending where you live, the recession looks worse. I’m sorry you are feeling so discouraged, it is only natural that after so long you would feel hopeless. 🙁 Grab that bear spray like someone else mentioned!

I graduated in May and was lucky enough to have one of my professors pass my name along to a long time friend of his who was looking for someone to join their design and build company. I have been one of the lucky ones. My fellow classmates have not been so lucky. Of the 20 or so of us that graduated just a handful have been able to find employment. Even though I was given this lead, it still took nearly three months before I started. After the first month, I was given a week of “vacation” time since we slowed down. I am back at work presently, but for how long?

My wife and I are considering this a learning expereince since whatever I make goes right to our nanny’s pocket!

I have another idea. Perhaps all unemployed LAs should go to Wall Street and do something like PARK(ing) http://rebargroup.org/parking/That would be awesome! haha…don’t know if you would have time to set something up before being tackled and sprayed. But hot d*mn…that would be an awesome protest and representation of landscape architecture.

Two people are out camping in grizzly bear country. One has the latest and greatest hiking boots. The other has a pair of sneakers on. The first said “why don’t you have hiking boots?”. The other said “we are in grizzly bear country, so I have running shoes”. The other says ” you idiot, you won’t out run a bear”. …. “no, but I will out run you!”.

The people with the sneakers are the ones working. The ones doing what they see everyone else doing are lost in the crowd.

I thought he was referring to the duplicit position of firm owners working employees into ill health while designing “healing gardens” for hospitals and such. I often thought it was incongruous to try to design places that are relaxing and peaceful when your work environment has a bunch of stressed-out cad-monkeys going from one crisis to the next. I used to think it was kind of important to be in the right state of mind to design.

On a serious note, some LA’s, myself included, have found themselves in other careers. The firm I currently work for has a very small (6 employees) LA department and about 30+ environmental planners. While I enjoy the environmental planning, it’s not the same a design work, and talking to the LA’s in our firm, the projects are getting fewer and farther between. One final note, our IT dept. has blocked access to every social media site besides LinkedIn. I know more than a few colleagues who have said that after spending 8-10 hours a day staring at a computer at work, the last thing they want to do when they get home is sit in front of a computer and read about how hard times are all over the country. Did someone mention bear spray? I might need some of that. 🙂

It never ceases to amaze me when times get tough that people tend to believe they should go back to school for that Master’s Degree. As if to say well there is no work for me as Bachlers Degree Holder so there must be more oppurtunty as a Master’s Degree Holder!

Just to comment on Russell’s reply about “corporate/Chinese ASLA better future world.”… The really frightening statistic is that right now there are more College PHD graduates in China than there are College students in the United States. When you have a billion people you can kill any profession if you set your mind to it.

These are excellent observations in my opinion. I feel that I am lucky to be doing some of the most thoughtful work I’ve done to date due to the unique position I’m in–working from home (as well as in an office part time). Taking the stressful office tension out of the equation makes a huge difference both in productivity and quality and thoughtfulness of the work. Only problem now is that I make very little money.

It’s unfortunate that so many of the ‘old business models’ remain in place regardless of the evidence for it’s apparent shortfalls.